Kaizo Level Contest (THAT'S ALL FOLKS!)

[Mivixion]

I'm designing my level for this to be 100% fair this time around. It's 100% fair for everyone and does not discriminate based on skill level! That's the point of this contest right????????
/s

Actually I think my level will be pretty well enjoyed. Superpowered X was designed to mimic more traditional SMW kaizo, this time around I'm putting a more modern feel to it. Less repetitive tasks and more overall fun.

As for my view, I believe the point of this is to provide 30 second to 90 second levels that will take each of the judges anywhere from 10 to 90 minutes to beat. This is exactly why I didn't want to name it Challenge Contest. It implies levels like World 8 and generally uninteresting levels. We don't want traditional design, the goal of this is to begin pushing the limits of acceptable design and what can be done with SMBX. There are definitely people who hate that type of design with a passion and I totally understand, but that's the type of contest we're running here.

(Feel free to correct me PixelPest if I messed anything up here, but everyone these days wants their level clears handed to them on a silver platter, the goal of this should be to make them work for it)
And I still think we should require clear videos for all the levels

[MECHDRAGON777]

Mivixion, if we require clear videos on every level, then me recording the levels is good. Only clear videos should be required on levels no judge can beat (not going to happen). I actually hope Zyglrox Odyssey sees this contest. Anyway, good luck everyone.

[PixelPest]

I'm designing my level for this to be 100% fair this time around. It's 100% fair for everyone and does not discriminate based on skill level! That's the point of this contest right????????
/s

Actually I think my level will be pretty well enjoyed. Superpowered X was designed to mimic more traditional SMW kaizo, this time around I'm putting a more modern feel to it. Less repetitive tasks and more overall fun.

As for my view, I believe the point of this is to provide 30 second to 90 second levels that will take each of the judges anywhere from 10 to 90 minutes to beat. This is exactly why I didn't want to name it Challenge Contest. It implies levels like World 8 and generally uninteresting levels. We don't want traditional design, the goal of this is to begin pushing the limits of acceptable design and what can be done with SMBX. There are definitely people who hate that type of design with a passion and I totally understand, but that's the type of contest we're running here.

(Feel free to correct me PixelPest if I messed anything up here, but everyone these days wants their level clears handed to them on a silver platter, the goal of this should be to make them work for it)
And I still think we should require clear videos for all the levels

Sounds pretty good. Videos are not required though

[as303298]

I am one of the guys who hates these types of levels, don't get me wrong, but I just like knowing everyone has the right idea of what to do.
As for videos, there is no way in hell a lot of these people can make videos. Bandicam alone takes up a lot of the CPU, so that isn't a likely option.

I propose, instead, a designer gives the judges a note file of how to beat a level. This way they have something to refer to if they can genuinely not beat a level.

[PixelPest]

I am one of the guys who hates these types of levels, don't get me wrong, but I just like knowing everyone has the right idea of what to do.
As for videos, there is no way in hell a lot of these people can make videos. Bandicam alone takes up a lot of the CPU, so that isn't a likely option.

I propose, instead, a designer gives the judges a note file of how to beat a level. This way they have something to refer to if they can genuinely not beat a level.

I will implement that idea in a sense. I think I had it in one of the older sets of rules, although I'm not sure why I removed it

[MECHDRAGON777]

I am one of the guys who hates these types of levels, don't get me wrong, but I just like knowing everyone has the right idea of what to do.
As for videos, there is no way in hell a lot of these people can make videos. Bandicam alone takes up a lot of the CPU, so that isn't a likely option.

I propose, instead, a designer gives the judges a note file of how to beat a level. This way they have something to refer to if they can genuinely not beat a level.

I will implement that idea in a sense. I think I had it in one of the older sets of rules, although I'm not sure why I removed it

You had mandatory videos actually, and one or two judges disagreed. I agreed to it though.

[Mivixion]

I think videos or at least a text file with how to do the tricks in the levels are both fine. Just a sort of freedom for designers to add cool stuff since they'll teach people how to do it.

[MECHDRAGON777]

I think videos or at least a text file with how to do the tricks in the levels are both fine. Just a sort of freedom for designers to add cool stuff since they'll teach people how to do it.

I posted a SMBX glitch list and it is not even referenced. Any reason?

[Mivixion]

Glitches aren't really what we're looking for, although they have some cool uses. I'm going more for stuff like physics abuse and stuff.

[MECHDRAGON777]

Glitches aren't really what we're looking for, although they have some cool uses. I'm going more for stuff like physics abuse and stuff.

Physics abuse falls under the category of glitching/glitches.

[Mivixion]

no it doesn't, because the way the physics work is intended, glitches are not.

[as303298]

Whats the difference between abusing a glitch and the physics coding?

[Imaynotbehere4long]

I'm designing my level for this to be 100% fair this time around. It's 100% fair for everyone and does not discriminate based on skill level!

I know you're being sarcastic, but yes, that's absolutely what you should do. Something you may not realize is that we're not advocating for levels to be so easy that they're boring, uninteresting, and hand the player a victory on a silver platter; we're just asking that the levels give players plenty of time to figure out what they're supposed to do before you try to kill them.

For example: lets say you want a level based around the player eating a rainbow shell to fly across some enemies. You shouldn't start the level off by making the rainbow shell easily miss-able, because that's not intuitive. You should start the players off in a room where the rainbow shell can't be killed or passed up; that way, the players have to eat it and fly to reach the next section. Then you make the rainbow shell trickier to eat, because the players know what they're supposed to do from the previous section and missing the shell would be their own fault.

That's also why walkthroughs shouldn't be encouraged: levels should teach through design so that players can get practice doing what the level wants the players to do. Telling the player what to do through text or a video walkthrough is just a lazy attempt at getting around this and does nothing for allowing players to get a feel for what you want them to do.

Even skilled players need time to react, and that's why those Mario Maker levels to which you linked aren't good: they don't give the player any time to react and rely on walkthroughs for first-time players (that is, people playing the level for the first time, not necessarily people playing Mario for the first time) to have a chance at winning, and that's not good level design.

[Mivixion]

If a level is designed to teach the player something, sure. However, my goal with level design and that of many others like the stuff I showed you is to push the limits of what you can do, which expects the player to have a grasp on the concept before playing that level. Like in an actual game in the later worlds you wouldn't still have gimmicks in an easy learning environment, and that's the idea with these levels as well.

[PixelPest]

If a level is designed to teach the player something, sure. However, my goal with level design and that of many others like the stuff I showed you is to push the limits of what you can do, which expects the player to have a grasp on the concept before playing that level. Like in an actual game in the later worlds you wouldn't still have gimmicks in an easy learning environment, and that's the idea with these levels as well.

Agreed, although sometimes it depends on the gimmick

[Mivixion]

Well yeah, if a level is based off of one particular trick, it should do the standard difficulty progression, but the trick is hard and I'm a huge naysayer for stuff like letting players reset to retry a trick of some sort. If it's just tough platforming sure but there are better solutions to make things forgiving than just letting them do something a million times over a reset pit until they get it (which is OK for some things, but I am a huge fan of checkpoint use for something like that)

[Imaynotbehere4long]

Like in an actual game in the later worlds you wouldn't still have gimmicks in an easy learning environment

Except you're not making a full game; you're making a stand-alone level, and stand-alone levels need to be able to stand on their own. Yeah, it's safe to assume that players know basic stuff like jumping physics, enemy AI, and how power-ups work, but if your level makes the player do some obscure trick that not many normal levels even give the player a chance to do (how many levels have a Yoshi and a Kamikaze Koopa? That includes SMW), there should be some sort of precedence within the level before you make it difficult to pull off.

[Nerx]

I'd like to enter :)

If not in the readme, where do I put the credits? Just a message box near the start of the level saying who made the graphics/music?

[PixelPest]

I'd like to enter

If not in the readme, where do I put the credits? Just a message box near the start of the level saying who made the graphics/music?

Credits aren't necessary nor wanted. Please don't include them in your submission

[Mario_and_Luigi_55]

Are annoying invisible blocks allowed? I don't mean everywhere, but few of these.